For the last couple of days, DirecTV satellite television subscribers have been seeing a crawl if they've watched any Versus network programming telling them that as of Aug. 31, DirecTV will no longer carry Versus. For college football and NHL fans who get their television through DirecTV, this could be bad news. Five Pacific 10 Conference games (as yet undetermined) as well as an assortment of Big 12 and Mountain West games, and an NHL package of 54 games could become unavailable to DirecTV subscribers just when those seasons start. The first Pac-10 game on the Versus schedule will be Sept. 26. According to Versus, it is now seen in 75 million homes.

Besides college football and the NHL, Versus is the home of the Tour de France, IRL auto racing and cage fighting.

Robert Mercer, director of public relations for DirecTV, said: "Versus' overall ratings are poor and have not increased nearly enough to justify what we're paying them, let alone the significant increase they"re asking for."

Charter cable did this my 4th year up at Central and we called in to complain. They said they had never gotten so many complaints about a station and got it put back on the network. Mind you they started running the crawl about canceling it during round one of the playoffs.

Wow. Even though I have Charter Commnications and can find places to watch stuff on VS that carry the Dish Network, this does not make me a happy camper b/c some places I like to go have DirectTV. Add to that that this is a double whammy for me as I love hockey obviously and the college I went to plays its sports in the Mountain West Conference.

I had dish network two years ago and I had to upgrade my package to get Vs. So I switch to DirecTV and all is fine .. until I heard this news ... On Dish Network I had to pay a extra $5 a month just to get FSN-D (before I upgraded)! The packages offered by Dish Network are atrocious and even though DirecTV is dropping Vs , id stick with directv .. as for Vs ..suck my left ball for trying to raise your price .. s***ty programming + a successful NHL season doesnt give you a right to profit from it.. ESPN!

"I mean, the best thing for my knee, for anyone's knee, is to never play again and retire. But I'm not going to do that." o-captain my captain

i don't think anything is certain yet. I've been following this on another forum.I'm a cyclist and a big Tour De France fan. Here's a letter that a forum member got from DirectV concerning this.....

Dear Mr

Thanks for writing. We recognize you as a valued and loyal customer and we want you to know we appreciate it.

Our agreement with Versus expires on August 31, 2009. We are working hard to reach an agreement to keep Versus on the air. If we are unable to reach an agreement and must take Versus off the air, we will communicate with you via on-air slides or messaging.

We understand how important Versus is to you. It's equally important to us to keep your monthly fees low, so we're doing everything we can to avoid paying exorbitant programming fees. We feel that the terms Versus is asking for from us do not reflect the market or what they are asking of other distributors.

If we are unable to reach an agreement by August 31, we will continue to negotiate with Versus, however, it's unlikely that we'll be able to keep Versus on the air during negotiations. In the meantime, you'll still be able to watch college football on Big Ten Network, the MTN., ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN GamePlan, local channels and your Regional Sports Network (RSN). NHL games are available on NHL Network, NHL Center Ice, and your RSN. MMA is available on HDNet and Spike TV, IRL on ABC, and Professional Bull Riding on ESPN2.

Thanks again for writing and stay tuned to directv.com for the latest news and information

i don't think anything is certain yet. I've been following this on another forum.I'm a cyclist and a big Tour De France fan. Here's a letter that a forum member got from DirectV concerning this.....

Dear Mr

Thanks for writing. We recognize you as a valued and loyal customer and we want you to know we appreciate it.

Our agreement with Versus expires on August 31, 2009. We are working hard to reach an agreement to keep Versus on the air. If we are unable to reach an agreement and must take Versus off the air, we will communicate with you via on-air slides or messaging.

We understand how important Versus is to you. It's equally important to us to keep your monthly fees low, so we're doing everything we can to avoid paying exorbitant programming fees. We feel that the terms Versus is asking for from us do not reflect the market or what they are asking of other distributors.

If we are unable to reach an agreement by August 31, we will continue to negotiate with Versus, however, it's unlikely that we'll be able to keep Versus on the air during negotiations. In the meantime, you'll still be able to watch college football on Big Ten Network, the MTN., ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN GamePlan, local channels and your Regional Sports Network (RSN). NHL games are available on NHL Network, NHL Center Ice, and your RSN. MMA is available on HDNet and Spike TV, IRL on ABC, and Professional Bull Riding on ESPN2.

Thanks again for writing and stay tuned to directv.com for the latest news and information

The NHL network doesn't cover the playoffs so that doesn't mean s***. Also, many Wings fans live outside Detroit (we're not the Pens ), so this does prevent many of us from watching games, especially playoff games.

This happened with Dish about 4 years ago. They let contract negotiations drag on until 1 week before the playoffs and that was when I switched to DirecTV. I can handle missing a few regular season games, but if I end up missing playoff games because the NHL contracted with this stupid channel I'm really going to be pissed.

with some of the little girly posters on this site,the Lifetime network would be convenient for them.They could watch their chick flicks and soaps immediately following the game.

Ahh, nothing like the sweet smell of broad-brush generalizing and stereotyping in the afternoon. Almost as good as the smell of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.

I am curious though as to what a "little girly poster" is. When I think of a "little girly poster", this is what I see:

Maybe that's what you had in mind?

Edited by Electrophile, 24 August 2009 - 04:18 PM.

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." -- The Doctor